Our industry may be shut down for a bit but we’re never out of ideas at United Scenic. We recently reached out to our friends at St. Joseph’s Hospital (Dignity Health) in Phoenix, specifically Dr. Ross Bremner who is head of Cardio Thoracic Surgery, to offer our assistance to our front line medical workers. We didn’t know exactly what this would look like, we even offered to cut the grass or fix the plumbing, but Dr. Bremner came back to us with something more in our wheelhouse.

He needed us to fabricate two working prototypes for an intubation protection box from a design that originated overseas. For lack of better terms, it’s a sneeze guard that drastically reduces the spread of droplets. Dr. Bremner’s desire for wanting these protective boxes done so quickly was due to the shortage of PPE and the concern that supplies were not sufficient to meet the need.

The team at United Scenic started with a wood prototype and experimented with that until we eventually graduated to acrylic. We also downsized the second unit so that the boxes could nest together for storage. The next step was to find the perfect mass production shop for the job. Our friends at Prisma Graphic came through in a big way.

We are more than happy to execute this pro-bono work during such an unprecedented time. One of the few good things about a crisis is the way that people come together and use their strengths in new ways, however small, to make an impact. Dr. Bremner also asked about sourcing plastic oxygen head enclosures, so that’s next for us!

From everyone at United Scenic, we hope this story inspires you to help in any way that you can. Stay safe and be well!